Catching up with a friend

EK Book club at Elaine’s last night was hilarious. Everyone was on good form and we had a really good laugh. Inevitably there was quite a lot of school talk, which still interests me, and it sounds like schools are having very difficult time just now regarding staffing and pupil assessments and behaviour. Pupils have missed so much school over the last couple of years that many have never learned properly how to study or what behaviour is expected in a secondary school. These stories were told in a very entertaining manner but were actually quite horrifying and the situation sounds extremely stressful for teachers. It’s all going to have huge repercussions for further education and the workplace. Conversations that I have had recently have also made me realise that Covid has and will continue to have a huge effect on people’s physical and mental health. Physically there is “long Covid” and also delays in treatment of surgeries and non-covid illnesses. From the perspective of mental health, many people have been bereaved without being able to spend time with their family members or friends before they died, or have been isolated during the lockdowns, and that’s just a couple of examples. I feel that our lives have changed so much.

I met up with Philippa today for morning coffee which was a very special occasion; we haven’t seen each other for about four years. This has been partly because Philippa lives in Austin, Texas, and a couple of years can go by without us seeing each other. However the longer gap has been due to Covid and all the associated travel bans. We have of course been in touch during that time but it’s not the same as a face to face meet up.

We sat down with our coffees and started chatting, and it immediately felt as if we had seen each other only five minutes before! Philippa’s and my children are similar ages; in fact Jamie and Blair were born only one day apart and Philippa and I met when we took them to a toddlers’ gym class in Clarkston called “Tumbletots” in 1991. We got chatting and the rest is history! Many pleasant afternoons were spent at each others’ houses with the children all running about happily. There have been many times when we have supported each other by talking through life’s challenges. We caught up on each other’s news and hopefully will be able to meet again next spring when Philippa comes to Glasgow for three months.